THE shoppers of Oxfordshire did the county proud yesterday.

When our team first went into the city centre just before 9am, hoping to find queues of desperate bargain hunters lining up at the Westgate Centre, we were slightly concerned to fight the city practically a ghost town.

Meanwhile in Swindon, people really were queuing up outside the town's Primark store before 8am.

Could the shoppers of Oxfordshire have let us down? Were they all just going to stay at home all day, too afraid to leave the house?

Of course they weren't: we just do things a little differently from Swindon (as if we didn't know that already), and by lunchtime the city centre was heaving with people popping into all the shops, eating out and meeting friends almost as if nothing had happened.

It goes without saying that we need to keep staying as safe as possible – despite the great news from the various vaccine teams, we are by no means out of the woods yet – however, it is perfectly possible to go out and shop in a safe, responsible way – and our shops need you now more than ever.